Tips against RAAM for Beginners

EDIT: I know the numbering is weird. It gets the job done, though, and I would rather not explore formatting for much longer. kthxwuvzu.

Hey KI buddies. I just got demoted to gold for lack of ranked play time, so I’ve been up against a lot of new players lately (freaking cool that there seem to be so many, by the way). There are a few things I’ve been able to exploit hardcore (read: abuse) against some of these players, so I thought I’d put this PSA up in case any come here looking for tips.

Here are some tips against RAAM for new players (or those with very little experience against RAAM):

  1. Jump to Escape the Grabs: Jumping turns his grab from oppressive abuse into a tricky mind game. When he flips you up from the ground, just hold up. Do that, but not always. If RAAM knows you will jump, he will anti-air you and probably win the exchange (emergence is a really easy anti-air during that mind game). If you can make him think you will jump, and he uses emergence to try to stop that, you can block emergence and punish him after driving around the world one time, if you want. NOTE: If you have a DP, you can counter hit both emergence and the command grab with it. He knows you have a DP too, though, which means part of his mind game against you becomes blocking after light stomp to catch you trying it. And we all know what happens when your DP gets blocked.

What this looks like when you let him abuse it: Heavy grab, flip up, heavy grab, flip up, heavy grab, flip up…

  1. Don’t Worry so Much about Breaking his OTG Stomps: They barely give him any damage. In fact, in my opinion, RAAM wants you to play the breaker game when you’re on the ground. If he mind games you into it, he gets an easy counter breaker into ~60% on one of his bad days. Wait for him to flip you up with his light stomp, then play the mind game from there. If in the corner, you have to pick either jump or block. If anywhere else, back dashing is an easy solution.

What this looks like when you let him abuse it: He reads your break attempt like the first paragraph of a Clifford the Big Red Dog book. He counter breaks you and steals at least 50% of your health bar.

  1. Bait Out Wakeup Emergence–Do Not Try to Jump-In Meaty Him: If he tries to wakeup emergence and you block, then you’ve effectively just blocked a DP. He has a heart attack every time emergence hits a block, is what I’m trying to say. Bait it out, block it, and then tell him who his daddy or mommy is. If you jump in to try and meaty him, you’ve told him its his birthday and he should unwrap you with emergence at his leisure.

EDIT: Thanks to @Infilament and @SithLordEDP, I can now recommend that you be careful with wakeup emergence in response to jump in. If their jump-in timing feels late, it could mean they’re trying to safejump you–jump in at the last possible second, so they connect with you right as you’re standing up. Emergence is too slow to catch them, so you have to block. Just be aware of this–as you climb the ranks, safejumping may become more common (even though I’ve never seen it in the 1500-2000 Killer range). I tell you this just so you know what’s happening if the wakeup H Emergence isn’t working, sometimes. It’s unlikely you have to worry about it before you reach Killer, though. If your opponent knows how to do it, look for a block string pattern following the jump in that you can punish with a shadow counter. That’s my current plan, anyway.

What this looks like when you let him abuse it: “HEY GENERAL RAAAAAAM! I’M COMIN IN! BETTER WAKE UP AND CATCH ME!”

RAAM wakes up, brushes his teeth, gets dressed, drives his kids to school, then comes home and H Emergences the ■■■■■ out of you.

These are the three behaviors that will just hand RAAM the match. I hope anyone who wants help against him finds this helpful :slight_smile:

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Unless is a safejump, right?

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What do you mean by ‘safejump?’

Raams emergence is super slow. There’s enough time to jump in and attack but still block it in time.

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Safe jumps are jumping attacks that are timed against an opponent getting up after a knockdown. You time them to hit very deep in their body just as they are getting up. If they attack with a slow reversal (like Raam’s emergence), the reversal will phase through your jumping attack as expected, but you will be able to land and block in time because of the way you recover from jumping attacks. However, the jumping attack will still make contact with Raam if he does nothing, so he must block it.

It’s basically a way to attack someone risk-free as they rise from a knockdown, but you don’t usually get a scary mixup.

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@SithLordEDP, @Infilament Wow, I didn’t even know that was possible against Emergence. Thanks for describing it, here.

@MaruMDQ Yeah, you’re right. They can safejump RAAM on wakeup to force him to block. I’m wondering if new players are concerning themselves with getting that timing down at their stage, though. I certainly would not have focused my effort on learning to do that when I started.